


Presque Vu

by yeojingamera



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, MV Theory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 09:34:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21492151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeojingamera/pseuds/yeojingamera
Summary: "Jiu let herself be dragged through the palace corridors as Siyeon shouted commands at every guard they came across. Her mind was entirely blank, her knees were about to buckle. She could feel her lover's betrayal as an actual wound on her body, though she couldn't seem to be certain where the wound was, exactly."
Relationships: Kim Minji | JiU/Kim Yoohyeon
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Presque Vu

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!! this fic is just me slapping some fantasy worldbuilding on my admittedly rather basic theory for the deja vu mv, i hope you'll enjoy it <3

Night had come over the castle; the twin moons' gentle light seeped into the royal bedroom, as usual. In the royal chamber, two women were softly running their fingers across each other's skins, as usual. As usual, loving words were being whispered.  
And then, they fell silent, and Yoohyeon closed her eyes placidly, and Princess Jiu examined her lover's face for any new little dots she could find in the dim light. Instead, she was greeted by the same little moles and specks that she had seen and counted ten thousand times before. She smiled to herself, feeling her heart swell, as usually happened when she was with the woman she loved.

And then the woman she loved opened her eyes and said:

“When are you going to make me your queen?”

And the moment shattered, much like a dish falling to the ground would shatter: making all eye-witnesses pretend they hadn't been scared by such a small ocurrence. Jiu tried not to furrow her brow, and faked a smile instead.

“This again?” Her voice was polite and neutral. It took her an effort not to avert her gaze from Yoohyeon's eyes, which seemed to have no shine at all. Jiu attempted to convince herself that the night had just advanced enough that the moonlight no longer reached and reflected on the eyes of the woman she was lying with. Her attempt was a mixed success at best.

“Yes, again. I want to be united to you for all time.” Yoohyeon sat up on the bed. “Is that really so bad?”

Jiu sat up as well, resting a hand on her lover's leg.

“It's not bad! I want the same! I want you, Yoohyeon. Don't you know that by now?”

“Then why?! Why won't you make me your wife?! Why can't I be Queen with you?”

Yoohyeon's gaze seemed to have become even darker. Her hair was parted, and her forehead was showing one wrinkle of genuine anger. Realizing this prompted Jiu to mistakenly assume that the unsettling feeling she had inside must have been anger too, instead of fear, and she reacted accordingly.

“How can you be so shallow?! You know damn well why I can't marry you!! Marriage is my single most valuable diplomatic tool, and I only get to use it once!! This stupid, useless little kingdom needs allies, Yoohyeon, and if you haven't realized that yet then you're too ignorant to be queen anyway!!”

Immediately after screaming those words, Jiu felt her own heart sink. She knew. Something had been broken. The air between them seemed to have frozen, to the point that Yoohyeon was actually shivering as she averted her gaze from the princess and twisted the sheets between her hands.

“L-listen, I'm never going to replace you.” Jiu babbled, in lieu of an apology. Then, she opted for revealing a secret as a means of negotiating for Yoohyeon's forgiveness. “I know who I have to marry in order to be able to be with you forever. The prince of Limia only likes men, and Yékiros has a princess who isn't interested in romance or affairs at all, and-- and I've been in talks with both of them. One wedding or the other might happen next year, and then the famine that has been riddling our kingdom would be... over.”

Silence. Then:

“'In talks'. When were you going to tell me?”

“N-no, listen! You and I would still be– We'd go to all events together, I'd look to you for advice, you'd be more or less– You'd be _basically_ queen! Everyone'd talk about us, everyone would _know!_”

Yoohyeon had gotten out of bed and had started dressing up before Jiu was done saying 'listen'. She donned her nightly robes, of a plain black silk that went well with her eyes, and walked away from her grasping partner, who called for her to come back to bed, causing Yoohyeon to stop before opening the door.

“You've made your point. I must prepare tomorrow's sermon now.” Her voice was so cold that Jiu's heart started to feel numb.

Yoohyeon exited the chamber with a determined gait and steps that resounded throughout the hallway. Jiu didn't go after her.  
  


* * *

  
It was the next day, and the High Priestess of the Twin Moons was getting ready for her weekly sermon to the people of the kingdom. She was tying her white and gold ceremonial robes around her waist and wrists, and applying makeup to her face.

Yoohyeon didn't always know why she did the things she did, as is often the case for those who tend to hurt the people they love. She wasn't that clear about her motives for what she was about to do today, either. You see, Yoohyeon did want to be queen, but deep down, it was fine with her if things didn't go that way. She already had a heavy amount of power and influence in the court and the people, to the point where she had considered her ambitions fulfilled the day she became High Priestess. And she really did love Jiu; a part of her knew that, if she pushed her cold rage aside, she could get to see that the princess's point of view made at least some amount of sense, and that it was her job to think that way, and that they could be together despite everything.

But, unfortunately, that little voice that wanted to fix things was buried deep. The truth of the matter is that, as is often the case for those who are about to hurt the people they love, Yoohyeon had had a look at her pain, and she had decided that it needed to hurt _more._

After a last glance at the mirror, which left her with a vague and unsettling feeling –was there something strange about her eyes?–, she exited her chambers and headed out towards the castle square.  
  


* * *

  
Overseeing the crowded palace square from her royal balcony, and as she waited for Yoohyeon to make her public appearance, Jiu felt an anxious emptiness take over her insides. It wasn't the usual knot in your throat, or the feeling that your stomach has become blocked. It was more as if all of her organs were pulling in different directions, trying to escape her.  
Despite it all, perhaps because of her diplomatic training and royal upbringing, she was able to keep a straight face and resist from twisting the cloth of her expensive dress. If her companions had noticed anything wrong with her, they had certainly not spoken up about it. They were all looking intently down at the pulpit from where Yoohyeon was to make her usual sermon, as she did every Wednesday.

Finally, the High Priestess made her appearance, walking out of the palace and onto the pulpit. The crowd of peasants and merchants broke up in cheers. There had always been something about Yoohyeon's sermons that the people really enjoyed; perhaps it was how she always seemed to get something wrong and realize immediately after in an endearing way, or the affable tone she used when telling stories about the gods. Maybe it was just how she always made sure to address the worries that plagued the population: somehow, those who listened to her always seemed to believe her when she told them that, with inner vigor and hard work, they'd be able to carry on through this or that famine or locust plague. Her charm had a real effect on the people.

Today's sermon, the Princess quickly noticed, was different. It was plain to see that Yoohyeon's demeanor was of a solemnity seldom seen in her, and when she started talking, her words weren't meant to appease the masses, precisely.  
This is as much of what she said as Princess Jiu was able to understand before everything spiraled into chaos:

“My dear kingdom, my fellow citizens. You have been honest and hard-working this week, as you are every week, and the gods are, of course, pleased. Or they would be, if they weren't suffering for your wretched situation.  
“That's right, my people: the flowers I keep for the goddess Ariatmi have been withering; the fertile square of soil that I keep to honor the goddess Taraitra has dried. This has been going on for a long time, but I was too scared to share the truth with you all, and for this I must apologize. However, the time has come, for I can lie to you no longer.  
“The gods, I said, are sad: they weep for you, who suffer under an unjust mandate. You, the ones who reap the fruits of the earth and the ones who distribute them, have been victims of a purported famine, fabricated entirely by a rotten monarch who keeps the grain all to herself, so that she may better negotiate her privileges with the nations she plans to _gift _our kingdom to.  
“That's right, my friends! She plans to–“, she added, but then the already increasingly loud bellows and cries of the crowd overpowered even her magically amplified voice.

After that, everything was rather confusing. Most of the peasants followed the High Priestess's command as she got more and more worked up about the evils the Princess had supposedly done, and so they started a revolt right then and there. Some of them began trying to get past the guards and into the palace, and some of them got caught in fights with the few who hadn't really been convinced by Yoohyeon's inflammatory speech. Yoohyeon herself seemed satisfied with her work and turned back to go into the castle. Jiu could spot a single armored guard moving to apprehend her, but someone grabbed the Princess's arm and pulled her away before she could see what happened to him.

The Princess gave a hazy look to the hand that was grabbing her, and then her eyes followed its attached arm up to its owner's face. Her Court Mage, Siyeon, was pulling her back into the palace. Everyone else who was with her on the balcony had stood up and was starting to retreat as well: the High Diplomats, Gahyeon and Handong; Dami, the Royal Scribe; and Sua, the Court Witch.  
Jiu let herself be dragged through the palace corridors as Siyeon shouted commands at every guard they came across. Her mind was entirely blank, her knees were about to buckle. She could feel her lover's betrayal as an actual wound on her body, though she couldn't seem to be certain where the wound was, exactly.

She was barely aware when Siyeon stopped right before a corner.

“The mob. They've gotten in”, Siyeon whispered to the group. And indeed, when Jiu made an effort to concentrate on what was happening around her, she heard the sound of violence not far down the hallway. “The way it sounds, I think they might be overruning the guards.”

“What do we do?”, a terrified Handong asked, as her fellow Diplomat held on to her arm and nodded emphatically along.

Siyeon scrunched her forehead as if she was running some calculations, then replied: “We need to get to the throne room. There's a secret chamber accessible from one of the dining halls that only the Princess and I know about. I think we all can fit in there and... just... let this blow over, I don't know.” She made a pause, during which she appeared to be crunching some more numbers. “But we need to split. If the mob is already taking hold of the palace, a good number of the hallways might already be compromised. We'll be stealthier in smaller groups.” A final pause, her pupils shaking slightly as she continued to assess the situation. “I can protect the Diplomats and Sua. Dami, you'll go with the Princess.”

“Me?!”, the Scribe almost shrieked. “How am _I _going to protect the Princess?! You can make fire with your _mind_, for the gods' sake! What am I gonna do if someone attacks us? Write them a very strongly worded letter?!”

“Well, ideally, her Highness'll snap out of it and protect _you_”, Sua remarked with only a light shadow of contempt. “If not, there's always that thing you do with mirrors. It freaks me out, but it'll keep you safe.”

“Did you hear that, my Princess?”, Siyeon said to Jiu as she released her grip on the Princess's arm, placing her hand on her friend's cheek and locking eyes with her. “We need you to snap out of it, Jiu. We need you, full stop.”

A deep breath. Then Jiu closed her eyes, placed her hand on top of the Mage's, and straighted herself before opening them again. When she spoke, her voice was resolute.

“Very well. I trust your plan, Siyeon. We'll need a moment of safety to gather ourselves before I can address the kingdom and prove my innocence.”

“It won't be hard. That upstart's claims were baseless”, Sua snorted.

“Okay! Okay, I can hear the torches and pitchforks fanclub getting closer, let's move!”, Gahyeon exclaimed upon seeing the Princess's jaw clench at the Witch's comment. Without a further word, the group split and started walking briskly along different corridors.  
Of course, in hindsight, a further word might have been advisable, considering most of them never really got to see each other again.  
  


* * *

  
Yoohyeon walked leisurely across the castle, comfortably navigating the chaos. After making short work of the guard who had tried to stop her, she had wiped his bloodstained rapier on her ceremonial robes and discarded the oversized, refined pieces of cloth on the floor. She wouldn't need those religious garments anymore. They were good for a High Priestess, but they were hardly fitting for a Queen.  
Jiu and Dami, on the other hand. continued half-running, turning every corner as stealthily as they could manage, getting ever closer to the dining hall where the secret chamber was. The safest way there from where they were was to go past the throne room door and down a small, hidden spiral staircase, so that was their plan. Every now and then, when they heard walking or any sign of a commotion down a hallway, they stopped right before the turn, and it was no different when, about to arrive to the throne room, Jiu heard the sound of some very familiar steps coming from the opposite end of the corridor.  
She freezed and signaled Dami to do the same. After waiting and hearing the steps get fainter as they walked past a door, Jiu allowed herself to peek past the corner. The hallway was empty. She then turned to her Scribe.

“Dami. The staircase down to the dining hall is at the end of this corridor. I need you to sprint there on your own. Can you do that?”

Dami's brow wrinkled. “I-I guess, sure. But why, your Highness?”

“If I'm correct, Yoohyeon has just walked into the throne room. I need to talk to her.”

“The High Priestess?! That's madness! I can't leave you alone with that woman, your Highness, she has made it clear that she means you harm!”, Dami hissed.

Jiu let out a soft smile as a response to the Scribe's genuine concern, and only then did she realize how tense her expression had been up to that point. Hearing the woman she still thought of as her lover had had more of an effect on the Princess than she'd allowed herself to notice. Her heart was beating fast, her stomach felt as if she were falling from a tower. Still she held on to the smile that Dami had gifted her with, and she said to the fussing girl:

“You can go into the mirrors and keep an eye on me, then. But rest assured, the Priestess wouldn't hurt a hair on my head.”

Dami made an incredulous expression and seemed ready to dispute the veracity of her monarch's statement, but Jiu didn't give her a chance: she just straightened up and turned the corner, gracefully walking towards the throne room.

“Won't you even grab a weapon?”, Dami pleaded after her, gesturing at the ornamental swords, axes and bows hanging on the walls.  
Jiu gave them a disinterested look and commented: “Those longswords wouldn't do me any good. I'm much better with a rapier”, then crossed the open door.

The Scribe stood there in befuddlement for a second, then sank her face into her hands and screamed internally for a good half minute. Finally, she resignedly walked back to the last body-sized ornamental mirror she'd seen in that corridor and casually stepped into it, like its surface was just thin air.

The corridor was now empty.  
  


* * *

  
The former lovers stared at each other. Yoohyeon, who was sitting on the throne and flashing a satisfied smirk, didn't feel satisfied in the slightest. Jiu, who had walked up to the center of the room with her own hands linked and resting in front of her, and clad in her puffy and luxurious pink dress, looked like she was in a diplomatic meeting. In reality, the phantom wound she'd felt when she'd first heard Yoohyeon's sharp words from the pulpit was making itself felt again, the pain more intense than ever, and it was being difficult for her to keep her composure.  
Nevertheless, it was the Princess who spoke first, and she did so in a calm, measured manner.

“After last night, I'm not going to ask why you did it, because that will just be an excuse for you to get self-righteous as you usually do whenever I call you out on anything.”

The soon-to-be Queen scoffed. “Self-righteous. Right. Listen, Jiu, if taking this kingdom from you is what I have to do to make sure you don't give yourself away to some stupid foreign prince, then it's a no-brainer.”

Jiu laughed an acid laugh and rested the tips of her fingers on her upper chest, mockingly pretending to be flattered, her voice getting louder as she spoke. “Oh you're doing it _for me_ then! You've started a revolt where dozens of my people might die, you've tried to ruin my name among my subjects, but you've done it _for me_, so that means it's perfectly alright! Well, haven't I been a selfish fool then!”

“Yes, you have!!”, Yoohyeon cried, impulsively standing up from her seat. Her stolen, slightly bloodstained rapier clanged against the base of the throne as she did so, drawing Jiu's eyes to it for a split second before Yoohyeon continued talking. Her words were pointed as she took some steps towards Jiu. “A selfish, insensitive fool is exactly what you have been. Let me ask you something: why didn't you include me in your little wedding plans? Why didn't you ask me what I thought?”  
At that point, she had some tears to fight back, so she looked away from Jiu before adding her next thought. “We could have worked something out.”

A hint of regret did cross Jiu's eyes, and her mouth opened to say something soothing, but then it closed again. When she finally talked a moment later, her expression was back to an unreadable, emotionless mask: “Actually, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to have a heartwarming apology moment with you, not this time.” She made a gesture towards Yoohyeon's hip. “That rapier. Did you take it from the guard who tried to stop you from coming back into the castle?”

“What...?”, Yoohyeon muttered, her eyes still wet. She didn't seem to understand the sharp turn in the conversation.

“Of course you did. It's a palace guard's rapier. And oh, hey, it's dipped in blood a little bit there. Mind explaining me whose blood that is?”

Yoohyeon fell silent. Much to her chagrin, a sort of shame had begun eating at her for the first time in what felt like years.

“I see. I don't even know what to say. Did you hesitate at least?”, Jiu negotiated. “Did he assault you, was it a last resort?”

Yoohyeon's expression grew even more somber. She didn't say anything.

“...Is this how you managed to climb up the Church's ranks so fast?”

The silence grew louder, making it even more jarring when the quietness was broken by the gently metallic, grinding sound of Yoohyeon's sword being unsheathed.

“Yoohyeon. I don't want to hurt you, but you're not giving me much to work with.”

“Hurt me. You seem to be forgetting who's the armed one here”, Yoohyeon replied coldly as she adopted a fighting stance.

Jiu shifted her posture as well, but only ever so slightly, balancing her weight equally between both feet. She knew her dress's expansive skirt hid her legs' subtle movement completely. It was just enough to be ready. “Well, if you want my kingdom, you're obviously going to have to kill me”, she said, raising her eyebrows and leaning slightly forward. “Or else, it won't be very hard at all for me to disprove the lies you told to the people and throw you in jail, _my love_.”

Yoohyeon bit her lip, seemingly in hesitation, but lunged at Jiu all the same. The Princess stepped aside and forward and effortlessly grabbed Yoohyeon's swordholding wrist, twisting it backwards. Their faces were about an inch away as Jiu disdainfully looked down at Yoohyeon.

“Really, Yoohyeon. It's like you've forgotten who taught you how to disarm a swordsman.”

Immediately after whispering that, Jiu sank a knee in Yoohyeon's stomach from the side, knocking the wind out of her, and snatched the rapier from the former Priestess's fingers with her free hand. Yoohyeon fell to her knee and Jiu took a step backwards, pointing the rapier at her former lover's throat. The Princess's eyes gave away nothing but the deepest contempt now.

And yet, the two women remained like that for a while. Nothing happened.

“Why won't you finish me off already, your Highness?”, Yoohyeon finally asked, some amount of cockiness having returned to her tone after her breath came back.

Jiu couldn't answer. Partly, this was because of the mind-numbing pain she'd been feeling; not only did it keep getting stronger and stronger, it was also distracting to not be able to figure out where it was coming from, exactly.  
But mostly, the reason for her paralysis was that, when faced with the reality that she might have to end Yoohyeon, Jiu couldn't stop thinking of all those loving nights, loving mornings, all the way into the beginning, the first awkward secret dates, the walks. Glaring at the lightless eyes of the woman who had just tried to murder her, all she saw was the first time they had kissed, under the pink clouds of sunset but hidden from the reddish sunlight by the walls of a hedge maze. Jiu's back pressed against a sturdy hedge, their fingers intertwined. Yoohyeon's scent of flowery incense. Yoohyeon's giggles after the kiss, leading up to Yoohyeon's laugh when she saw Jiu's surprised expression.  
Oh, Yoohyeon's laugh. Her screaming laugh whenever she did something embarrassing, her bubbly cackle whenever _Jiu_ did something embarrassing. It was all Jiu could hear now, as fighting and death kept coming closer to her through the corridors, the veins of her own palace.

The twice-stolen weapon fell to the ground with a deafening clang, completely silencing Jiu's memories. She turned her back on Yoohyeon's bemused expression.

“I'm going to order my guards to drop their weapons and give myself to the revolters. At worst, they'll keep me prisoner until I can prove my innocence”, she announced quietly, holding back tears. “Your stupid plot has failed. You're not even worth killing, but you better not be seen ever again anywhere in this kingdom, or else.”

For a long time later, thinking back on the next few moments, Yoohyeon repeatedly tried to believe that something had come over her, that it was a moment of madness, that maybe she'd even been possessed. However, this attempt at self-conviction always failed, invariably.  
The fact of the matter, as much as it hurt to think about, was just that she had it in her to murder the love of her life in cold blood to get what she wanted at that moment. She had it in her to kill off anybody who stood between her and her goals, and she'd never made an effort to lose that trait. She had never had a reason to. It had always served her well.

In that moment in time, seconds before she backstabbed the woman she had wanted to spend the rest of her life with, Yoohyeon had stared at Jiu's back, walking away from her, and she had heard Jiu's words, banning Yoohyeon from the land and from her side, and Yoohyeon had wanted it to stop.  
And she had it in her to make it stop.  
It was very fast. Jiu had only taken about five steps. Yoohyeon sprang forwards from her kneeling position and grabbed the rapier mid-sprint, and it was done half a second later.  
Jiu didn't scream, nor start, nor cry for help. She didn't look back at Yoohyeon with a horrified grimace of utter betrayal. Jiu just sluggishly looked down at the red thorn she had suddenly grown and muttered to herself, with a certain air of relief:

“Ah, _there_'s the wound.”

And dropped down to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

It all went downhill from there.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!!


End file.
